The "clear the board" game is still in Puzzle Quest 2. It is the mini game you play when you learn a new spell from a NPC (though I've only encountered a goblin witch in the orc floor that teaches spells). Also, I seriously hope they make a patch to fix the 'dumb' equipping and that someone makes a handy chart of what upgrades to what. So far, Hellforged seems to get +weapon critical as a perk when you upgrade it enough, Ancient gives +defense, and Glyphic gives +spell resistance. Happily, at level 21 you can restat, if you have the patience (instead of just starting over when you realized you completely gimped the barbarian...)

geek.flip:The "clear the board" game is still in Puzzle Quest 2. It is the mini game you play when you learn a new spell from a NPC (though I've only encountered a goblin witch in the orc floor that teaches spells). Also, I seriously hope they make a patch to fix the 'dumb' equipping and that someone makes a handy chart of what upgrades to what. So far, Hellforged seems to get +weapon critical as a perk when you upgrade it enough, Ancient gives +defense, and Glyphic gives +spell resistance. Happily, at level 21 you can restat, if you have the patience (instead of just starting over when you realized you completely gimped the barbarian...)

How have I not run into that yet? o_O Thanks for the info, that's very good to hear! But, yes, not being able to compare equipment is a real pain in the ass.

The only negative thing so far for me is the blocking as some creatures do it far too frequently.I've had some fights where around 95% of my attacks have been blocked meaning the fights last way longer than they should

It's definitely an improvement though.The AI no longer seems to be quite as omniscient and is therefore unable to chain together ridiculously big combos like the first game

MetalDooley:The only negative thing so far for me is the blocking as some creatures do it far too frequently.I've had some fights where around 95% of my attacks have been blocked meaning the fights last way longer than they should

It's definitely an improvement though.The AI no longer seems to be quite as omniscient and is therefore unable to chain together ridiculously big combos like the first game

Spells that lower defense help with the blocking a lot. Won't completely solve the problem, but definitely gives you more of a fighting chance.

MetalDooley:The only negative thing so far for me is the blocking as some creatures do it far too frequently.I've had some fights where around 95% of my attacks have been blocked meaning the fights last way longer than they should

It's definitely an improvement though.The AI no longer seems to be quite as omniscient and is therefore unable to chain together ridiculously big combos like the first game

Spells that lower defense help with the blocking a lot. Won't completely solve the problem, but definitely gives you more of a fighting chance.

Ok thanks for the tip.Had been kinda concentrating on offensive damaging causing spells so I'll see what else I have in my spellbook

MetalDooley:The only negative thing so far for me is the blocking as some creatures do it far too frequently.I've had some fights where around 95% of my attacks have been blocked meaning the fights last way longer than they should

It's definitely an improvement though.The AI no longer seems to be quite as omniscient and is therefore unable to chain together ridiculously big combos like the first game

From what I can tell, this is just another layer of strategy added to the mix, and the game is balanced as such. You can counter it by either using defense-lowering spells or poison (the latter of which cannot be blocked and sucks at low levels but gets really painful later on)...or just massive amounts of damage.

gibboss28:i especially liked the fact the games setting was based on the Warlords games.

Reeally?? :O!!!

Which Warlords games do you refer to, because I've played the classic Warlords and Warlord II, and if it's based on those I may HAVE to buy this game just for nostalgia reason alone!

Course I'll probably download it anyways, seems to have a much similar premise to the MMO Puzzle Pirates, so whenever I get tired of the pirate setting or the whiny 5 year olds I can go play another puzzle game to waste err.... I mean enjoy my time playing =)

So, I've been playing it for a while now, and these are my impressions:1) the core of the game is the same, and as such it's still very nice2) there are some big flaws in this new installment, the first of which is the "dungeon floor" design, which means that you encounter the same kind of enemies on a floor (ex. goblins, orc, undead), making the game less varied3) spell resistance is as annoying as it was in the first game, but now is more frequent4) defense is so-so because it just prolongs the fights without adding to them much5) loot is 99% useless: once you find a decent item for each slot (and armor is pretty indistinguishable at every level) and you upgrade it, you're set for life (a similar problem existed in Torchlight)6) money starts piling up almost immediately, since buying stuff at shops is useless as per point 57) following 5 and 6, the loot minigame is useless in addition to being extremely annoying (and you can leave before you complete it to try again, which is kind of stupid)8) the game is very easy but fights are still too long: playing as an Assassin I can easily dish out 40-50 dmg per spell AND chain them (doesn't scale with level/skills though), making other means of attack useless (skulls and poisons in the first place, but weapons mostly too), but since enemies have a lot of HP/defense it generally still takes a while to finish them, while they cannot touch me thanks to Stealth9) all minigames are too easy, some points in intelligence and you'll have more turns that you could ever need; some also (prominently lockpicking) often run down to trial an error to get the right gems in the right spot10) the minigame distribution is weird: up to the 4th floor, I've encontered the lockping and search ones a lot, disarm trap frequently and bashing and unlock spell just about twice each11) all in all, the only minigame that's interesting it's the spell learning one, which in turn this time around only teaches spells you won't use, at least as an Assassins since your class spells all sinergize a LOT

gibboss28:i especially liked the fact the games setting was based on the Warlords games.

Reeally?? :O!!!

Which Warlords games do you refer to, because I've played the classic Warlords and Warlord II, and if it's based on those I may HAVE to buy this game just for nostalgia reason alone!

Course I'll probably download it anyways, seems to have a much similar premise to the MMO Puzzle Pirates, so whenever I get tired of the pirate setting or the whiny 5 year olds I can go play another puzzle game to waste err.... I mean enjoy my time playing =)

Refering to Warlords 3, I started playing it and started thinking "Hang on a minute, this stuff seems familiar", looked at the map and it dawned on me that it was the map from Warlords 3.

When this beast finally makes it to the PS3, I will be a happy camper. It took its sweet time the first time around to go from xbox to ps3, and I'm hoping it's not nearly as bad this time. (Although, the ps3 installment apparently came packed with an expansion pack. So that's a bonus. :))

Nice Review, I plan on picking this up once I finish Deathspank. Which came out today and is a lot of fun. Just the addiction was sooooo strong in the first one I'm not sure if I want to go back to that dark, puzzly place.